If you’re like most people in the area, you’ve watched the W Hotel rise on Hoboken’s waterfront and seen its huge “W” for miles around. You can easily see it from the light rail as it pulls into Hoboken Terminal. The proprietors, owners, and developers of the W are Dave and Michael Barry of Hoboken Hotels LLC, an affiliate of Ironstate Holdings LLC. When the property opened in April, the public finally got to see this architectural gem.

The hotel’s full name is the W Hoboken Hotel & Residences. That’s right. If you have the monetary chops, you can actually live in these luxury lodgings.

Designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates, the hotel capitalizes on breathtaking Manhattan views.

“From the outset we believed that the new hotel should present itself as a counterpoint to the existing and planned development along Hoboken’s shoreline,” says partner Charles Gwathmey. Architect Dean Marchetto apprenticed with Gwathmey Siegel after college and now has his own Hoboken firm (see story p. XX). He looks at the W with an architect’s eye. It “broke the height barrier in Hoboken,” Marchetto says. “It fits well on the waterfront. You couldn’t put a 25-story building in the middle of the city.” They “made it thinner and taller instead of lower and wider, which gives more open space at ground level.”

If your plans don’t call for a hotel stay, enjoy a meal at its Zylo Tuscan steakhouse, a drink in the Chandelier Room, or a tension-relieving treatment at the Bliss Spa.

In the case of the W, pictures really are worth a thousand words. Take a look.